Composer Jan Bach and the Steelpan

The first concerto ever
written for steelpan and orchestra

Global - “Concerto for Steelpan and Orchestra”
- the ground-breaking 22-minute work of composer and educator
Dr. Jan Bach of Northern Illinois University (NIU) - was
most recently performed by NIU baccalaureate and soon to
be Masters candidate, panist Mia Gormandy. Originally written
for then student, world-renowned panist Liam Teague (and
now-Assistant Professor of Steel Pan and co-director of
NIU’s steelband) back in 1994, it has since been performed
throughout the USA and as far afield as Prague, capital
of the Czech Republic.

Dr. Bach has taught at NIU for almost
forty years, and has under his belt a comprehensive body
of work written for nearly every acoustic instrument and/or
ensemble, including eight or nine solo concertos with orchestra
and five brass quintets. He has since additionally penned
the thirty-minute “Songs of the Streetwise,” for choir,
soloists, and a small steelband with percussion, based on
poems by Chicago’s homeless people. In an interview,
this illustrious and innovative musician/educator shares
with When Steel Talks the impetus behind his initial involvement
with the steelpan, classical music written for the instrument,
and his overall thoughts on the movement to date.

WST:
Tell us a little bit about yourself?

Jan Bach

JB: I was
born in a small farm town in central Illinois and attended
the University of Illinois where I received the Doctor of
Musical Arts degree in 1971. My principal composition teachers
were Robert Kelly and Kenneth Gaburo, with additional work
with Aaron Copland, Roberto Gerhard, and Thea Musgrave.
For nearly forty years beginning in 1966 I taught at Northern
Illinois University in DeKalb after three years as associate
first horn in the U. S. Army Band, Washington D. C., and
a year teaching at the University of Tampa. NIU selected
me as one of its first Distinguished University Research
Professors in 1983, after a one-act opera of mine was performed
at the New York City Opera under Beverly Sills’ direction.
I’ve written for nearly every acoustic instrument and/or
ensemble, including eight or nine solo concertos with orchestra
and five brass quintets.

WST:
How did you come into contact
with the steelpan instrument?JB: I watched the development
of the steelpan program at NIU from its inception and beginning
by G. Allan O’Connor, the NIU percussion teacher and my
fellow graduate student at the University of Illinois where
we both played in the university orchestra.

WST:
What gravitated you towards
the instrument?JB: I was intrigued with the
vitality of this medium and the fun our college students
-- mostly studying other degrees -- obviously got out of
playing in this ensemble, but I didn’t take the group seriously
until they reached the performance level to play transcriptions
of traditional composers, including Bach chorales, which
showed a level of sensitivity, dynamic contrast, and the
performance skills necessary to play anything thrown at
them. It also helped that they all came from other
instrumental studies and could read music -- a skill so
often lacking in an ensemble whose forerunners in Trinidad
and Tobago depended primarily on rote teaching and memorization.
WST:
What inspired you to write
“Concerto for Steelpan and Orchestra”?

JB: The artistry of Liam Teague. We had had some really good
soloists in the past, but when Liam appeared on campus around
1993 his performances made me realize the full capabilities
of the pan as a solo instrument. He was, and is, a charismatic
performer with complete control of his instrument and, in
the words of the Chicago Tribune music critic, can probably
play the instrument faster “than anybody can play anything.”

WST:Was it really written
for the “soprano pan”?JB: I called it that in my
program notes, but it may have been a tenor pan or another
voice part. Liam’s instrument extends from the D above middle
C (D4) for over two octaves to high F# (F#6) which gives
it a slightly larger number of notes than other pans in
this range.

WST:
How did Liam come to perform
the piece?JB: I wrote the work for Liam
in the summer of 1994 after asking him if he would be interested
in a work he could play with orchestra. NIU has an annual
concerto concert for which our best students vie for the
opportunity to play a concerto and I realized that unless
Liam played a Vivaldi work, a transcription which would
not be allowed in the competition, there was nothing else
he could compete with. Of course, I went way overboard and
wrote a twenty minute-piece which was twice as long as the
competition allowed. Liam never did play the work on the
concerto concert, but the NIU School of Music director had
long hoped for an NIU partnership with Paul Freeman and
his Chicago Sinfonietta, and this piece became the focal
point of that partnership. Since his initial performance
of the concerto, Liam has performed it with twelve or thirteen
orchestras ranging from Seattle to Buffalo to the Kennedy
Center to Prague.

WST:
Have you written anything else
for the steelpan instrument? JB: I wrote a version of the
concerto for solo steelpan and our NIU Steel Band, and it
was in that arrangement that Liam first played the work,
on the NIU campus under the direction of Ronnie Wooten.
When Nancy Menck, conductor of the (Indiana) South Bend
Chamber Singers heard Liam play the concerto with the NW
Indiana Symphony Orchestra in Munster, she commissioned
me to write a work for steelpan and her choir. The result
was the thirty-minute Songs of the Streetwise, for choir,
soloists, and a small steelband with percussion, based on
poems by Chicago’s homeless people. Liam was able to take
part in the premiere performance in 2002. I learned only
shortly before the performance in Notre Dame, Indiana, that
Notre Dame was a regional center for the distribution of
food and clothing to homeless people.

Mia Gormandy, Jan
Bach and Allan O’Connor

WST:Have you ever considered
writing a piece for the full family of steelpan instruments?JB: Songs of the Streetwise
was my one effort in this direction, although the ensemble
was reduced to about seven players. I haven’t ruled out
additional works for this medium in the future if I am commissioned
to do so, but I don’t pretend to be able to compete with
the excellent arrangers who work with and play these instruments
every day, and who have grown up with the traditions of
steelpan.

WST:
Do you listen to steelpan music
in general? JB: Rarely, although I do try
to attend the twice-yearly concerts of the NIU Steel Band.
And, of course, the pan has been used extensively in music
of all kinds, including mass media advertising, a lot since
Disney’s Under the Sea helped to popularize the sound of
the instrument.

WST:
If so - do you have any favorite
composers/arrangers?JB: It was Oscar “Archie” Haugland,
an NIU composer/arranger, who wrote the first Bach chorale
arrangements I heard for this ensemble. Al O’Connor has
arranged some really ambitious concert works for steel band.
I like Liam’s original “chamber” works for small steel ensembles.
And I always enjoy Cliff Alexis’ originals for the whole
ensemble.

WST:
What is your take on the future
of the steelpan instrument? JB: I think the pan will eventually
be accepted as a serious concert instrument in the same
way that the saxophone, accordion and pan pipes were eventually
accepted. But I think, in order for this to happen, the
performers will have to abandon rote memorization and learn
to read music -- but in doing so I hope the ensemble doesn’t
lose the loose, free, exciting spontaneous qualities for
which it is known and appreciated.

WST:
How do your contemporaries/peers
view the steelpan instrument - is it still considered an
exotic instrument for the islands, and the beach? JB: I think many trained and/or
academic musicians still associate the ensemble with the
outdoors, where it sounds great and doesn’t need the concert
hall acoustic that so many other ensembles depend on. And
because of the constant stereotyped images we see on TV
and in the movies, it is really hard to disassociate the
instruments from the beach and the islands where they originated.
I do think the ensemble is no longer considered a substitute
for bamboo sticks and other, more violent means of expressing
oneself in street gangs, but an enjoyable alternative to
the handbell choir, the balalaika orchestra, other massed
groups of similar instruments. And I think people are surprised
at just how bell-like, delicate and quiet the ensemble can
play when called upon to do so.

WST:
Recently When Steel Talks saw
a young composer by the name of Andy Akiho at the Manhattan
School of Music - parent a body of work for the steelpan
instrument -
www.panonthenet.com/news/2009/may/Akiho-show-5-2-09.htm
do you think this will become more prevalent?JB: I have no idea. I don’t
really consider myself a particular spokesperson or champion
for the steel band over any other large ensemble I’ve written
for; they all have assets and liabilities.

The
solo part of the Steelpan Concerto was actually
written for soprano pan, a steel instrument
which usually plays the primary part in the
Caribbean steel bands. The work was composed
in the late summer of 1994 for Liam Teague,
a young musician from Trinidad whose musicianship
inspired the work, and with the financial assistance
of the Woodstock Chimes Foundation, Garry and
Diane Kvistad, presidents. It is also an homage
to Al O’Connor and the NIU Steel Band -- one
of the oldest such university groups in existence
-- and to the artistry of steel drum builder
Cliff Alexis, whose instruments’ incredible
intonation and tone make them worthy partners
in any serious musical endeavor. The work was
actually conceived in terms of three distinctly
different accompaniments to back up the solo
pan player: piano, steel band, and full orchestra.
It was also written in such a way that additional
parts from the steel band could be added to
augment the soloist and his accompanying forces
in orchestral performances. Its idiom is a popular
one, similar to some extent to the music indigenous
to the Caribbean islands, from which it borrows
its percussion section.

The work is in two main sections connected by
an extended solo cadenza. The first movement’s
title, Reflections, is not only a description
of its musical content, style, and tempo, but
carries an additional meaning: in Europe reflection
is a synonym for pealing, the action of striking
a bell. In this context, the movement’s title
refers to the bell-like sound of the Alexis
instruments; the climax of the movement is intended
to be reminiscent of the “change-ringing” of
bells popular as a seasonal sport in English
church steeples. The second movement, Toccata
(touch piece), also carries a double meaning.
It is not only an opportunity for the soloist
to display his machine- rhythm speed, accuracy,
and virtuosity as well as his phenomenal dynamic
control; it is also a connection with that Baroque
past with which the name of this composer --
despite all efforts to the contrary -- is forever
associated.